In the latest episode of Le Jour où tout a basculé, Sarah receives some troubling news from her son Nino that could put her job in jeopardy:
Sarah ne se doute pas un instant
Sarah doesn't suspect for a moment
de la tournure des évènements.
the turn of events.
Captions 2-3, Le Jour où tout a basculé - J'ai volé pour nourrir mon fils
Play Caption
The verb douter looks a lot like the English verb "to doubt," and indeed, the two are exact cognates:
Et puis, je commençais aussi à douter.
And then, I also began to doubt.
Caption 26, Le Jour où tout a basculé - À la recherche de mon père
Play Caption
But se douter, the reflexive form of douter, doesn't mean "to doubt oneself," as you might expect. Instead, it means "to suspect" or "to guess":
Mais il ne se doute pas
But little does he know [he doesn't suspect]
qu'à sa place va se présenter Edna,
that in her place will be Edna,
la complice de Louise.
Louise's accomplice.
Captions 63-65, Le Jour où tout a basculé - Mes grands-parents sont infidèles
Play Caption
If you're really certain about something, you can use the phrase se douter bien:
Avec un regard comme celui-là,
With a look like this,
on se doute bien qu'il a dû en voir.
one might well guess that he must have seen a lot.
Caption 1, Le Journal - Le photographe Cartier-Bresson
Play Caption
Je me doute bien qu'il sait comment cuisiner.
I'm sure he knows how to cook.
Both douter and se douter can be followed by de or que. (Se) douter de always comes before a noun (as in Sarah ne se doute pas un instant de la tournure des évènements), while (se) douter que always comes before an independent clause (as in je me doute bien qu'il sait comment cuisiner).
But douter and se douter differ in another important way besides their meaning. While se douter que always takes the indicative mood (since it expresses a certainty or near certainty), douter que can take the indicative or the subjunctive depending on context. In general, douter que takes the subjunctive in the affirmative and the indicative in the negative:
Je doute qu'il sache comment cuisiner.
I doubt he knows how to cook.
Je ne doute pas qu'elle sait la meilleure façon d'y arriver.
I don't doubt she knows the best way to get there.
As you may recall, the subjunctive is used to express a wish, uncertainty, or doubt. So if you're saying you don't doubt something, it makes sense that you would use the indicative rather than the subjunctive in that case.
We'll be back with a new lesson soon, sans aucun doute (without a doubt)!
At the end of the second installment of Le Jour où tout a basculé - J'ai volé pour nourrir mon fils, Sarah uses an interesting construction to express remorse about something she did at work:
Et j'avais beau me dire que je l'avais fait pour Nino,
And even though I told myself that I'd done it for Nino,
j'avais vraiment honte.
I was really ashamed.
Captions 54-55, Le Jour où tout a basculé - J'ai volé pour nourrir mon fils
Play Caption
Beau means "beautiful" or "handsome," but the expression "avoir beau + infinitive" doesn't have anything to do with beauty. It can mean a variety of things depending on context, but it generally describes a failed effort or something done in vain. Sometimes it's just a synonym of bien que, malgré, or quoique ("even though" or "although"), as in the example above:
T'as beau le travailler, ça ne vient pas.
Even though you work at it, it doesn't come.
Caption 67, Alsace 20 - Laurent Chandemerle, l'homme aux 100 voix
Play Caption
Ça a beau être une pizzeria,
Although it's a pizzeria,
nos prix sont assez élevés pour le commun des mortels.
our prices are pretty high for the everyday mortal.
Caption 5, F&F Pizza - Chez F&F
Play Caption
Or it can correspond to the English expressions "no matter what" or "no matter how hard":
Elle a beau faire, son copain la critique toujours.
No matter what she does, her boyfriend always criticizes her.
J'ai beau trimer,
No matter how hard I slave away,
sans toi ma vie n'est qu'un décor qui brille, vide de sens.
without you my life is just decor that shines, empty of meaning.
Caption 19, Indila - Dernière danse
Play Caption
When used with the verb essayer (to try), it means "try as one might":
Et j'ai eu beau essayer de le convaincre
And try as I might to convince him
d'arrêter ses enfantillages, rien à faire.
to stop his childish games, it was useless.
Captions 6-8, Le Jour où tout a basculé - Mes grands-parents sont infidèles
Play Caption
And when used with être (to be), the expression is often translated as "may be" or "may well be":
Yseult a beau être jeune,
Yseult may be young,
elle sait bien où elle veut aller.
[but] she knows exactly where she wants to go
Caption 5, Watt’s In - Yseult : La Vague Interview Exclu
Play Caption
Tu as beau être désolé, tu m'as blessé profondément.
You may well be sorry, but you hurt me deeply.
Note that, while the English requires a "but" in both of these sentences, there's no need for a mais in the French. So you wouldn't say: Yseult a beau être jeune, mais elle sait bien où elle veut aller.
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for our next lesson and tweet us @yabla or send your topic suggestions to newsletter@yabla.com.